Hey there!

I've been in love with the same woman for just a little over 30 years now.

She's always been my best friend through thick and not so thin.

She was my best friend when we had our first daughter and I had to wait 15 years to access her...

She was my best friend, when 3 years into our marriage my stupid self wanted a divorce...

Primarily because it took me a while to understand that being a husband and being a friend are separate identities...

They don't mix....

And unconditional love is a job with no retirement plan.

Every now and then when I catch her longingly looking at my rather perfectly formed masculine backside...

She says "I can't believe I still find you so hot after all these years"

My response?

Iz becos i'm ya spec for life

And that brings me to our next shift...

SHIFT 6: It's not about building a business, it's about serving a tribe.

There was a time when product brands drove business...

There there was the time of personal brands being the primary drivers of business...

More and more though...

The most successful companies in the world today are driven by tribes of people who trade their attention and resources for a sense of belonging...

Being a part of something bigger than themselves...

That thing they're a part of becomes their "spec" and inspires a high level of "through thick and not so thin" loyalty.

By just simply doubling down and serving a tribe of people committed to a specific future (preferably one that you are leading)...

You can generate a lot of income, impact and influence.

Now remember...

In the Community Mastery Method™, a tribe is made up of clients and customers...

People invested in the future you are promising.

Sometimes we switch the word tribe with the word community, but make no mistake...

As far as the Community Mastery Method is concerned, they mean the exact same thing.

And..

It's very different from what we refer to as an audience, which is the mass of people attracted to your message but not necessarily invested in it..

The major difference between the two as I mentioned before is the investment of time and resources...

Attention and commitment your people exchange for the future that you have promised.

You've got to consistently keep this at the back of your mind.

Tribes build movements.

Movements create attention.

Attention builds audience.

If you don't keep this front and center..

You'll get caught in the visibility for visibility sake game...

And whilst you can create attention and invariably build an audience that way...

That audience will have no sense of belonging....

And consequently little or no loyalty.

Why?

You can't create a sense of belonging in hundreds or thousands of people all by yourself.

It takes a core committed tribe focused on connecting with small numbers of people per time.

I learned this back when I ran the HPEN facebook group.

I create something called hpenconnect which was just weekly meetings that gave people the opportunity to run their own group success events under the HPEN brand.

Guess who opted to lead these meeting and fund them out of their own pockets?

Yup...

My clients and customers.

On the day the picture below was taken, I was being simultaneously watched in 24 locations, across 3 continents and 8 countries...

Some of these locations had as much as a hundred people in attendance and had to be spit into more manageable sizes.

Funfact: The amazing Yeye Bush championed the Maryland hpenconnect center and was instrumental in connecting me with amazing people who went on to give me international media opportunities especially on CNN and the BBC.

Meanwhile...

I've spent pretty much the best part of 30mins trying to upload the picture above.

Why?

Darn picture just wouldn't go where I want it to go.

And so now I have to wrap up or I'll miss the 9am deadline for publishing.

Tomorrow...

I'll dig into what I refer to as a Movement-Based Enterprise™ or MBE™ for short.

It's a practice model that combines all the benefits of running a small global business with the advantages of a practice...

I'll share with you why this model should be you primary model as you apply the Community Mastery Method™.

Till then..

Get out of your own way and play a bigger game than you've ever played before.

CTM

PS: All pay what you want spots for March have now been taken.